Morning Message Text: 1 Corinthians 3: 1-9
The Church and Its Leaders
1 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ.
2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.
3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?
4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?
5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task.
6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.
7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.
9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.
Morning Message:
As believers in Jesus Christ we have one purpose in this life, to worship and glorify God. The best way that we can demonstrate our love for God is by following his direction and obeying his commands. We are commissioned and sent into the world by Jesus to make disciples, but before we can effectively make disciples of others we must be sure to be right with God. Everything that we do in the Lord’s name must start with self-examination. That is why I want to start today with our scripture from Matthew. Jesus reminds us of the commandment against murder, but then he adds to it in order to make us understand that it is not as easy as we might think. “But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” Now Raca actually means, empty head, worthless, or foolish. It is a word of contempt. Those who used that word were demonstrating a spirit of anger that could cause them to be called before the Sanhedrin, the highest court in the land. Jesus is saying that such anger is dangerous and destructive and has no place in the life of a believer. Now we may never actually commit murder, but have you ever been angry? Have you ever called someone empty headed, worthless, or foolish? According to Jesus, it’s still sin.
Okay, this is important for us to hear. Most of us come to church feeling pretty good about our ability to keep most of the commandments, especially the big ones, right? Listen to the full interpretation of God’s law from the one who wrote them in the first place. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.” No problem, right? Hold on for the rest of it. “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman” (or man) “lustfully has already committed adultery with them in their heart.” Your mind is where the real battle rages. What goes into your eyes is processed by your brain, and if you allow it to stay there it makes its way into your heart. Now Jesus gives us a very graphic description of what it might take to avoid such sin; don’t take this literally, I don’t want any of you to hurt yourselves. Things get into our minds, sometimes there is no avoiding it, but we must deal with it through prayer and confession and not allow it to permeate our hearts. The mind is the battlefield where we can win with God’s Word when we have to do battle in our hearts. We can still win, but it is much more difficult and painful. There is a whole message just in this.
Why do I preach so much about spiritual growth and the need for us to mature in our faith? Because the more mature you are in your faith, the easier it is for you to walk in it and live your life according to God’s will. The more mature you are in Christ, the quicker you will deal with the sin that attacks all of us and the sooner you will get back into fellowship with God. According to our scripture, here are the five marks of spiritual immaturity that Paul is writing to the Corinthians about.
1. Babyishness. Babies are self-centered, only concerned about their own needs being met. They can only handle a limited diet (milk) and possess limited understanding. Mature people meet the needs of others and grow in spiritual diet and understanding. The more selfish you are the less mature you are spiritually. The more the needs of others take presidents in your life, the more you will understand God’s word and grow.
2. Bitterness. Jealous people are bitter. They live for applause and get upset when upstaged. A spiritual person serves the Lord without concern for personal acclaim. Do we do things for the sake of being noticed and feeling good about how much we have accomplished, or are we satisfied just knowing that we are serving God? Some people get all tied up in knots if they think that someone else is getting credit for something they did. Grow and let go. God knows.
3. Battling. The word quarreling means: to squabble or be in discord. Some people seem to be at the forefront of every fight. Christians are committed to being people of peace, doing everything they can to strive for unity and end discord. Being peaceful is not just praying for an end to war, it’s choosing to be peaceful.
4. Brokenness. A worldly person constantly cares about choosing sides, which fans the flames of divisiveness within the Body of Christ. Christians should instead be committed to reconciliation.
5. Barrenness. People of the flesh bear no spiritual fruit. Those who are born of the Spirit produce fruit time and time again, even in difficult situations. Show me your fruit.
This list should cause believers to discern the state of their lives. Do we live as ones who have embraced the essentials of the faith and who now desire to grow in understanding and conduct? Or do we allow ourselves to be consumed by fleshly distractions and desire? We should be planting and watering; anything else is motivated by the flesh.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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